大象传媒

My grandmother, who is now 94, recently told me of the story of the child evacuation programme. It seems that my father and uncle plus my great grandmother, as their chaperone, where all set to sail on the next ship out of England to Australia.

The government had accepted them as evacuees and my grandmother was given an allowance for clothes which they would need when they arrived at their new home.

As it happened, my family had relatives in Australia, so I suppose for them it wasn't too bad an experience.

But my grandmother believed what she was doing was the best thing, especially as there were real threats of air raids.

I asked her how she felt about it. And she replied.
"I'm not sure how I felt about it. I suppose it didn't really occur to me that I would probably never see my boys or my mother again."

Has it happened, the ship City of Benares was sunk shortly before my father was due to leave England. After that, all overseas evacuations were stopped.

It intrigues me that if it had gone ahead, I would have been born in Australia, possibly become an Australian national. What is almost certain is that I would never had met my mother, or my grandparents.

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